1-3 John - 1st John 3:7-10 Children of God & Children of the Devil
1 John 3:7-10 · Bob Eckel · May 29, 2011
1, 2 & 3 John, No. 22
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926236156516

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, I miss being with you, and it was fun to kind of prepare yesterday, just kind of getting back to where we left off. There's a segment of 1 John that I missed, that the catching up with as time permits. So today we're going to be looking at 1 John chapter 3, verses 7 through 10.

And this is a section entitled by Scofield, Little Children, contrasted with children of Satan. And the title of our lesson today is Children of God and Children of the Devil. Now talk about an area of the Bible that must be interpreted. correctly is really before us today. Because this one is one of those tricksters, if you will, that can really lead us down to the wrong path and wrong interpretation. So we'll pray that ultimately the Spirit will be capable of having us shed accurate and optimal light on this passage today. So let's begin with verse 4 and read down through verse 12. Who would like to read this morning? Tom, how about you? Can you read that for us? Tom, no Bible? Tom, maybe you shouldn't read this morning. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins. No one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.

The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was an evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. All right, I'm going to take a very zealous position this morning by challenging that translation. And so I'm going to set the stage for the next 40 minutes to follow. So let's see how we do here. First, first, little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. So let no one deceive you.

Present active imperative. Roy, present active imperative. Something that we do continually now. Okay. It's command. Present tense though is now, right? Yeah, directive right now. And where's the continuing scenario? When you have present tense. Well, present tense is now. Does it indicate sustaining activity? Yes. Palm. Started in the past, continues in the present. That's perfect. I can see we're going to have fun. Let no one continue leading you astray. Let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness. Let no one deceive you. Continue action.

I'm willing to accept you there. We're going to challenge this in a little bit though. So how would this deception take place do you think? Let's turn to Galatians 1 verses 6 through 9. A perfect example, I think, of this. Marilyn, you got that? I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to convert the gospel of Christ. But even if we are, if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let them be internally condemned. Through Tim, as we have already said, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be Okay, so is this potentially being deceived, do you think? Sure.

Here could be other examples. So what would this other gospel be, Marilyn? What do you think Paul's talking about in Galatians? Law. Yeah, these are the law brought on. I mean, it's the legality that's used to trump grace. In grace there's no law, right? The law of Christ is grace perfectly personified. So I think the deception could be in that manner. another gospel, which is law, not grace.

All right. We've looked at that. All right. Not his doing. Okay. He who practices. So you could translate this, not his doing that makes him righteous. Okay. But his being righteous is what makes him do righteousness. That's JFB. I liked it. So this practices meaning is doing, but yet it's being that results in doing.

Right? And you're going to see this again this morning. It's not what you do, it's who you are. And once you know who you are, then what you do is an evidence of who you are. Right? We're talking about a life here. We're not talking about a set of principles or guidelines or recommendations of how to live the Christian life. He who does righteousness is righteous and therefore righteousness is the result. It's a life. It's not a choice that I'm going to do good today or not do good. All right. Everybody okay with that? Okay. Justified.

That's because we are righteous because we're justified by the righteousness of God. We could turn back to Romans chapter 10, read three through 10. I don't know that we should take time to do that, but I mean, Romans 5 being justified, I mean, it's all over Romans that we're justified. We're justified because of him. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

2 Corinthians 5.21. Again, again, He made Him, Christ, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

So, righteousness is all over the Pauline epistles. Romans is probably the best place, but there are many other places to find this. So, because we're righteous, God sees us as righteous. Therefore, when we live by faith, a life in Christ, righteousness shows up for what it's really worth. That brings glory to our Heavenly Father. Trying to be righteous is not the issue. He who does or practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

I probably should have put 2 Corinthians 5.21 down there. You might want to write that down if you've got a pen as another good verse to support the fact that because of Him being sin for us, we are made righteous in Him. What was that verse?

2 Corinthians 5.21. It's a good one. All right. Other kind of issues that relate to this in terms of the life in Christ that we list.

1 Peter 2.24, Roy Gale dealt with this in our study in 1 Peter a couple of months ago. who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we having died to sins might live for righteousness. by whose stripes you were healed. That's the life. His sacrifice translating into us living for righteousness. And by the way, that's in righteousness, is perhaps a more accurate interpretation.

1 John 2.29, we've been there a few weeks ago. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices or does righteousness is born of him. So this is not a gray zone here.

The problem is as we look at this through the human eyeglasses and we put kind of judgment on people's performance, we can be in error. Because I've always raised this issue before the class, is that there can be what appears to be wonderful and righteous deeds made by unbelievers. And we see believers fall apart with stress and trials and tribulations. So we can't be in a position overall judging this. But God, through his perfect vision and knowledge, knows righteousness when it's real, right? It's not us to measure how well we're doing here. He is the final judge of our life and our behavior.

Thoughts, conversation. OK, good. Onward. So how how do we do righteous? Well, the same way we become righteous, by faith. And what's faith? Believing what the Lord has revealed. Good, Margaret. This is very good, dear. Faith is always so confusing to everybody. They come up with these long, drawn-out definitions of what faith is. Biblical faith is simply believing what God has revealed. I mean, at times we struggle with that because we bring that other nature to this whole process. But do we believe that we're made righteous? You've got to start there. Because if you think there's something we need to do to be declared righteous, then we're on the wrong page.

Tom, your thoughts? I think that summarizes it. Okay, I thought you looked like you were ready to splurge. Only if I raise my hand. Okay, I'm going to listen. Alright, so by faith we're told that we're saved, and by faith we're told that we're being saved, and by faith we're told that when the rapture really does come, not last week, right? May 21st? That we will be raptured. Let's move on.

1 John 3.8.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose or cause, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Now this verse, among others, says that the devil has been taken care of. Now we don't necessarily believe that at times when we see our own sin nature surface, but I don't need the devil to sin. I got an old nature that's perfectly good at its own right sinning.

But anyway, let's look at this in more detail. He who sins is an active present participle. Same kind of deal. The ILG again translate is this is the one practicing. This is where I'm going to take exception to the translation. Yet the present tense represents a simple statement of fact or reality viewed as occurring in actual time.

So the sustaining nature of this we could discuss but that when we translate this as practicing sin, we're ultimately kind of saying, you know, we're putting a legal kind of interpretation. How do I know if I'm practicing sin enough? Maybe I'm a child of the devil. Well, I think I'm saved, but maybe I'm practicing. Anyway, I don't think that this is the best way to look at it.

So what does it mean that when it says, he who sins is of the devil, of course, noting from the beginning that the devil has sinned, I think we all By the way, was the devil originally the source of sin? At the very beginning of time? So what happened to this whole deal then? Well, no, I'm talking about before the beginning, at the very beginning.

The devil was in heaven with the Lord. Then he wanted to be like him. So he got tossed out, right? God said, you're not in my kingdom. Let's see you dwell elsewhere. And so the devil was presumably with God at the very beginning and ultimately then chose his own path, right? So from the beginning, the devil was called the devil.

Ultimately, we got to be careful because that was the beginning that was not the beginning. Okay. From the beginning that was not the beginning. Correct. Would be a better way of seeing it. Yeah. The beginning is not the beginning. Right. Because at the very beginning Satan was with the Lord, right? He's a created being too. He is. So he had a beginning. God doesn't. It's always him.

Did the devil have choice? I think so. Do angels have choice? So the devil presumably from the beginning was not called the devil. I mean in other words the devil became the devil ultimately when he rejected God's way and took his own path and then ultimately that's what the Bible declares. We must be well-found, I think, in the Pauline epistles to interpret this verse correctly. Let's go ahead. Let's look at these verses now. Let's look at Romans 6, 3 and 4. And let's see. Gary, could you get that verse for me? And Gail, could you do Romans 6, 11 through 13 for us? Through Romans 6, 3 and 4?

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore, we have been buried with him through the baptism unto death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its last and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Okay, so there appears to be an opportunity for, pardon the term, choice. I don't like the term choice because the old man has no choice and the new man has no choice.

By faith, we live by the power of the Spirit in the new creation that we each and everyone are. But anyway, so let's now ask the question, what's the source of this sin in all of us, including those members of the body of Christ? Same for unbelievers and believers. Does that go away once we're saved? No, it's still there. Okay, let's continue that theme then.

Is not 1 John 3.8, what we're currently reading, entirely supportive of two natures and the believer? Absolutely.

This idea of practicing sin, in my opinion, is not a good interpretation. Because it implies that there's some ability of somebody to say that, or we say to ourselves that, gee, you know, am I practicing sin too much, questioning our salvation? The source of sin is the same in the believer as it is in the unbeliever.

It's just the child of the devil. In fact, there is just no other life but that of the old man, the old nature. Whereas in the believer, God sees us as having no other choice. He knows we have another choice, but we're made perfectly righteous. And this idea of measuring how much am I practicing sin is just not the victory and the joy of the Christian experience we have in the new man in Christ Jesus.

And so, again, like I said a few statements ago, you've got to be well-founded in Paul and grace to come to 1 John and put it into perspective. Don't you think? I mean, if you start in 1 John after you first got saved, you're going to question your salvation left and right. You've got to be founded on the principles of grace. Let's continue.

Does the old man, I ask this question, does the old man ever change? He gets worse. He really does. Why does the sin nature get worse as we grow in grace? That's the way he's made. He grows in it. Well, I think the old man is perfectly capable from the very beginning of anything he can aspire and have us do and respond to. But why do you think as believers he seems to get worse as we grow in grace?

Because as we recognize grace and the life we have in Christ, that darkness becomes darker and darker and darker and we see it for what it is. Well, I think in a sense it gets enlightened by His light. Don't you find that way? You think you're growing in God's great grace and in His light and suddenly the darkness is showing up in new ways. I thought that was dealt with already.

But our job as believers is not to dwell there. Isn't it neat in 1 John we confess our sins and we're immediately back in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Christianity is an uplifting, encouraging experience. That life in Christ we have really that's not burdened by legality, not burdened by putting a set of standards on the old man is just so freeing. And I think it's Christ saying, you know, ultimately, I'll make you free indeed. And that freedom is to live a life not empowered by the old nature. But I think Roy is right. As we grow in grace, that that old man becomes more evident for what he really is. Okay, good.

Bob, what would you use instead of practices? I called Mike one day on that. I don't like the word practice. I don't like it either. I look at this, and Roy and Tom can correct me here, but I look at this doing thing as a a simple act that may be continuing because the old man never ceases us. But, I mean, each and every sin we do, do we, I mean, maybe I'm practicing sin too much. I mean, in other words, I hate this kind of trying to put a metric on this.

Well, if we look at this as being from the source, and we believe that, because sometimes we don't, Okay, I'm using blunt language, but that's the way we think when we don't believe God, that we are indeed righteous in his eyes as the new man. The new man does righteousness. The old man does sin, just like the devil. Are we willing to believe that? That's our choice. Remember again that God sees us as righteous. He doesn't see our sin. What does our sin do in the lives of members of the body of Christ when we sin? What happens then? Fellowship. Fellowship, Gary, perfect.

And we're deceived, just like this text. We're deceived. Yeah, deceived by that other nature, right? Good, that's a good application. So all these deeds of the old nature, the things that Christ went to the cross for, God doesn't see those anymore. We're going to come to that in a second. So have the works of the devil been destroyed? What's the answer to the class? For the body of Christ, have the works of the devil been destroyed?

Absolutely. So important to see this. Romans 6 says it's inoperable. Before the throne of grace at the right hand of God is our righteousness and our mediator and our everything, what Christ has done is eternally valuable. There's no coming back. Let's look at this in more detail. The text here says might be destroyed. This is, let me go back, aorist active subjunctive. Greek scholars.

Potential. Subjunctive is a tense. Potential subjunctive tense is the potential it might occur and might not occur. So the subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality. The action described may or may not occur depending on the circumstances.

Now, look at the verse again. The verse says, He that commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Well, how he might, has it occurred? Or has it not occurred? Okay, but then where is this sin coming from? Let's look at the scriptural support for this.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ said, now is the judgment of this world, and now the ruler of this world will be cast out. He is saying to his Heavenly Father, in his prayer in the garden, that ultimately what's going to occur within a day is ultimately the power of the ruler of this world being cast out. Is that for all the world? Well, before God, is it for all the world? Yes. But have all come to believe that this is true?

No, the unsaved world does not relate to the crucifixion in any way. I think that the verses that say that they commit a sin is a servant of sin, and I think Satan wants to rule in that realm. That's his realm, is not believing God, not trusting God, thinking that he is superior. If his works have been destroyed or rendered offline or not in control anymore, rule, isn't it?

Yes. Isn't that where we're going with it? Exactly, exactly. One of my favorite verses is the next one. We all have favorite verses, but I think this should be really on the top of your pile in terms of potentially favorite verses. Hebrews 2, 14 and 15.

In so much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same. that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject of bondage." Oh, I mean, in verse 15, the subject of bondage, I mean, you could really play that out too in terms of the Christian existence, our life in Christ.

But there, it says that the cross before God is sufficient for eternity. The devil himself has been removed from power. And remember, in our life experiences, we fall back into sinful ways by omission and commission. But that's because we still have an old nature. But God sees us as righteous always, always. So my question to the class, will Christ come down again and die again? Is his work in some way incomplete here? Are these verses just not true? We know that Satan's still alive and well, right? He's a wolf in sheep's clothing, for sure. He's the angel of light, if you will.

But nevertheless, we as believers before God, have can claim these verses as God eternally is satisfied with the crucifixion, death and resurrection of his son. Boy, we got to keep that in mind. And our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ really begins with that as the foundation of our relationship with him. Okay. It says here for this purpose or this cause the Son of God was manifested. It's a done deal that he might destroy. I mean it says right here this is the purpose.

And this subjunctive nature I think for us is no longer subjunctive. It's placed in the text as subjunctive. But we can't deny the rest of Scripture that indicates before God Satan's been dealt with. And one of the meanings of subjunctive is there is the potential Yeah, that's good.

Can everybody hear what Roy is saying over there? Okay, good. I'm sorry. Maybe, Peter, maybe it's my hearing, right? We were talking about our hearing last night a little bit. If Tom hears, we're good. Okay. Good points, Roy. Let's look at a few additional verses.

1 John 2.1-2, I'm sorry.

Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the entire world. I think the reason I put this verse in here is that it relates again to our fellowship. But secondly, it's the idea that the cross was efficient for everyone. You know, Christ died for the sins of the entire world, just that most of the world doesn't realize this or believe it. He just didn't die for the body. This is not, you know, a specific, you know, act on our behalf. It is on our behalf, but the whole world has the opportunity to respond to the fact before God, Christ has died for the sins of the entire world. Okay, good.

1 John 3.8 speaks to the failure and total inability of the Adamic nature to do righteous as we are righteous.

So again, it says, he that commits sin is of the devil. Why? Because the devil is the source of sin. And when we sin, the devil is responsible, working through the old man to bring that to bear. We're not children of the devil. We're children of God. But yet we still have the sin nature. And so I kind of interpreting this simply as the devil is the source of all sin. We're not the children of the devil because we sin.

We're forgiven. And 1 John 2, 1 and 2 tells us we have an advocate in Christ, that we come back to him and that confession is guaranteed when we do. Our position is never threatened, but our condition depends on our life sourced entirely from above. Let's go on to verse nine.

Whosoever has been born of God does not sin. Oh, I had that circled in my Bible. I thought I had trouble with that. Goodness gracious. Anyway, for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he's been born of God. Does that really cement this once and for all? I mean, again, how do you deal with this unless you have right theology? Whoever has been born of God doesn't sin. Well, that's because the new nature, by the power of the Spirit, lives to glorify our Heavenly Father. And there's no sin there. And God doesn't see the sin, even if we do sin. The old man is sinning. The Lord only sees us identified with Christ and His righteousness, so He can't see our sin.

And you know, William Newell said it perfectly, when you're disappointed with yourself, what's the reason for that? You've trusted yourself. I mean, in a sense, the critic of this type of theology would say, this is schizophrenic. The idea you have two natures inside you. Well, no, we're not psychiatrically ill. We're interpreting the Bible to what it says. We're talking about old man, new man.

And we're going to look at that here in a minute. Here also the ILG translate this not practicing sin. I'm going to say again this verb tense is present, active, indicative. And if we use the ILG interpretation here and earlier, you can define, can you define practicing? Okay, so I've raised this already. How do we define practicing sin? When you said before commit and committing sin. Well, how would we say, gee, I've looked at Ingrid lately and I wonder if she's not, I mean, is this some sort of, that wouldn't be true of her for sure. I mean, what kind of metric is this anyway, this practicing sin stuff? Well, and whose standard is it? Your standard? My standard? Somebody else's standard? You know, Roy's standard might be a lot higher than my standard on practices. Well, what about vanity and pride and these kinds of things? I mean, we all think about the big sins, coveting and lust and lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride of life.

These are easy ones to say, gee. Yeah, Roy. says one sin to he who does sin, he who sins. There are no numbers on that. That's right. And by the way, we're going to look at this right now, I think. I think that's next in line. How's that for a legal metric? This whole practicing sin thing. Gee, I mean, Gary's doing pretty well. Tom, I'm not quite sure about you right now.

Simply put, and as verse 9 says, we cannot sin because we've been born of God. The new nature has no sin. And when we live by faith, remember the response is by faith. There's no other vehicle to making this work. Well, it's Christ's life. He is alive in us. It seems to me that when we talk about the new nature, I'm not saying this right, I think the key is the words his seed. That refers to the new nature. That cannot sin. I think we have a tendency to read right over that, but it's there for a reason. It's referring to a life. It is a life, isn't it? Remember, again, you get tired of hearing me say it, but for me to live as Christ and die as gain. Either way you win. Peggy, either way. Gary, for me to live as Christ and die as gain. There's just no alternative. were uplifted by both, by faith.

I like Paul's explanation in Romans 7 about the struggle between the old nature and always the sinful nature and the new nature. Paul says, now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. So he's recognizing right there, he's struggling. He's been saved. But now these legal principles over the old man and his deeds and his acts and his thoughts He's overly embodied by them. And he's saying, what I want to do, I don't do. And what's all this all about? Well, there's sin nature in me.

And Paul's clearly saved in Romans 7. This is not a man before he's saved. So we all struggle with this. But I think we need to be mentally and experientially ingrained in right theology. We really have to see ourselves as positioned above and our life as hidden Christ. Two natures, two natures, two natures. First John assumes that we have a foundation in Pauline theology, in the Pauline epistles.

Romans 6.6, knowing this then, that our old man was crucified with him, notice old man, and we're not talking here about sins being forgiven, we're talking about the Adam nature being crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves unto sin. By the way, we should no longer kind of says there's a possibility we might, but in fact this says we shouldn't be.

Old man, Romans 6.1, we read it already.

No, we didn't read Romans 6.1. What shall we then say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, no. He's calling us by faith into a new life, a life sourced in Christ and directed by the Holy Spirit.

Another old man verse, Ephesians 4.22, then that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust. So again, that old guy is still there. Some people don't like to call him the old man anymore because in the body of Christ the old man has been crucified, but that old man really speaks to the flesh and the sinful nature in each and every one of us. translation. That's what we learned.

And that turns back to Romans 6.6, doesn't it? But the King James even makes it look like it's a command. It's not. It's a, this is what you really learned in Christ.

And you know, I think it's Ephesians 4.20, the deeds of the Church at Ephesus were really falling far short of what God had called them to, and in verse 20 it says, all of this is because you have not so learned Christ. And then he tells us what we did learn. So, good. I'm glad you threw that in, that's good. Last verse, we've got about five minutes left I think.

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whosoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. Does not practice righteousness, present, active, participle, which kind of child are you? Is the question.

Well, I think we can answer that one pretty easily. And how are you doing here? Are you practicing hard enough? You working at this? So, the Greek term here is poio. and it can be translated the following, bear with me. Abide, appoint, band, bear, bring, cause, commit, deal with, do, I like do, execute, exercise, give, keep, make, observe, perform, purpose, put, show, suspend, rot, or yield, Does anybody see practice in that list of Greek terms? Anyway, you know, I'm not smart enough to say that I'm going to be able to write another translation. Anyway, I think do, practice, I just don't like the translation and it's not the original Greek.

I think someone has interpreted this in a way that makes us misread this section of scripture. I think sin is of the devil and righteousness is of Christ. It's that simple. I don't know if it will help you or not, but when I went to the seminary over here, Conservative Baptist, Dr. Verdi, his interpretation is, we're dealing with believers, we're dealing with unbelievers, we're dealing with believers, we're dealing with unbelievers, back and forth throughout this book, rather than interpreting it as fellowship. to do that. I think we, at least some of us, believe that's a wrong interpretation here.

I'm just giving you an example of why that's there. Now remember, Paul said very clearly, should we continue in sin that grace may abound? This isn't a license to sin because of God's great grace and forgiveness. In fact, I think we're called to a life that's free of sin, indeed, as Christ said, that we would be free indeed to live a life glorifying to him by the faith in what's been accomplished and is being accomplished. The question I've already asked you, do you see practice in this list? I don't see it there myself. All right, to end up, not loving his brother reminds us of what we've covered a few months ago. And by the way, the next few weeks is going to kind of be on this loving our brother kind of scenario, too.

1 John 2, 9 through 11. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Again, remember John, there's no gray zone with John. It's light or darkness. It's love or no love. What do we mean by loving our brother? What kind of love is this? It's agape love. Unconditional love. God's love. And we can only do that through Christ.

There's no way we can love anyone like that. Because we don't have that capability. No man doesn't have that capability. And by the way, again, I sound like a broken record. We don't have to like somebody. We just have to love them. Because it's of a whole different nature. It really is. It doesn't come because we're going to work harder at loving our brother. It just doesn't make it there. It's Christ's love exemplified through us. And our brother is our spouse, our children, our neighbors, members of the body of Christ. It goes on and on. It's really an extenuating circumstance.

1 John 3.14 is something we've yet to cover, but we will. We know that when we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren, He who does not love his brother abides in death. That means part of the Christian life, the new creation, loves Wendy, loves Roy, loves Winnie. I have no choice but to respond by faith that my love for you is Christ's love for you.

It takes the burden off. The pressure is no longer there. We just have to believe that we're capable of doing this through the new nature that we all have. So let's sum up here. What have we covered today? Point number one, despite the fact that sin shows up in all of us, we are the children of God, not the children of the devil. Everybody okay with that? Not children of the devil. Point number two, his righteousness is our righteousness. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. It's not what we're doing. It's who we are.

And that's the last kind of statement. Quit trying to perform, but believe. Maybe I should say quit trying to practice, but believe. And my point here is something that I'm fond of. It's not what we do. I've said this already. It's not what we do. But it's who we are. And once we know who we are, what we do then is evidence of who we are. And that's righteous because He is righteous. And we're not putting check marks as to how we're doing. This is a life manifested by the power of the Spirit. Thoughts, responses, questions?

So, if you go back to Romans 7, whatever the one you quoted, it's a sin that's in me doing this. So does this go, like the conclusion is that the one that's sinning is the old man. That's the source, yes. So it isn't us, getting back to what Paul's saying, it's not us that's sinning, we're righteous. It's the old man. Correct. Then the version makes sense, because we do sin. Well, I just said we don't sin. Exactly.

Again, back to the schizophrenia. The earthly psychiatrist would say, if I showed up in the emergency room tonight because I carried out some illegal offense and I was shot... Anyway, the point is that if I say I have two natures, and it was my old nature that precipitated the argument that ultimately led to my being wounded, They're going to say, you're crazy, man. Two natures, what is this? Everybody I see in the psychiatry clinic has two natures. That's why they're seeing me. I mean, only biblically does this make sense.

And sin is always sourced from the old nature, the atom, the sinful nature. And ultimately in Satan, because he was the first one. And from the very beginning, he was a sinner, right? And encouraged us to be separated from God. So yeah, by the way, that sounds like a cop out, but I think you've got to begin with the important truth. is that we are righteous before God. And that righteousness is entirely our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ.

But sin's still there. And again, as we mentioned a few minutes ago, I think as we grow in grace, we find that sin natures can be uglier than we thought it really was. But that's not, again, where God's call is. We're not there to really detail, examine that nature. We want to just confess and get back in fellowship and learn more of Him. You have not so learned Christ was the reason that the old man became prominent in the Ephesian church. Let's close in prayer. Jack, could you close us in prayer, please? your son's day. Amen.